baking by picture

{This post first appeared as a guest spot over at Real Housekeeping Magazine}

I love dessert (who doesn’t?!).  So when we were invited to dinner at a friend’s house I offered to bring dessert, especially since I had seen this recipe for “heirloom” Oatmeal-Ginger Cream Pies in the latest issue of Country Living magazine. Now, I didn’t exactly set myself up for success. I waited until that afternoon to start… and then I got called into work.  But if I’m anything, it’s Mistress of Crunch Time, so—on to the baking!

In order for a recipe to become “heirloom,” according to the authors, it must:

• Be delicious,
• Be (relatively) simple to make,
• Have ingredients that are readily available to everyone.

Delicious? The picture looked pretty good. Ingredients? Looks like I have everything… Simple? Turns out that was relative…

The hopeful end result. Yeah. Right.

I should have realized I was in over my head when the first step of the recipe was to toast the oats. Riiiiight. Instead, I laughed and called my sister.  You’ve gotta share the fun when a recipe asks for more effort than you’d put forth to eat it…

Oats to toast.

Meanwhile, I’m supposed to be stirring everything else together, but I’m also supposed to go back to the oven and shake the pan with the oats, or turn it around a few times, or something like that.  You’re lucky these oats aren’t getting burned, buckos. There’s no way I’m shaking them around while stirring everything else. Nope.

Meanwhile, stirring…

This next part of the recipe was the best, and illustrates why you should read the whole recipe before starting out. You’d think you could just “drop by rounded teaspoonful” in the every-other-cookie-type-recipe-in-the-world manner…but no:

…roll dough, two tablespoons at a time, into balls, or use a #30 (1-ounce) ice cream scoop; for each sheet, drop 12 balls, 2 inches apart. With dampened hands, flatten each ball to a 1/2-inch thickness..

Umm…not gonna happen.  Didn’t I mention that I was throwing these together in the 12 minutes I had left before having to wake the sleeping baby up and throw everything in the car to go to work?So, I ended up winging it, as usual, and just made some blobs on the pans.

But look…she used parchment papers!  Pro.  For sure.

Now, on to the cream filling! Luckily, I had some candied ginger (“readily available ingredients”—ha!) in the cupboard from the last time I thought about trying a ridiculous recipe but stopped at the smartest point: Never starting.

Chop chop with the Cutco.

And…stir it up!

This looks kind of gross. It’s cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar and the candied ginger bits.

Into the oven.  When I pulled the cookies out, I didn’t really look at them, except to think, “Those don’t really look the same, now do they?” I came home to these:

Pretty dang flat.

But, if life gives you flat cookies, and you’re bringing dessert to the party…what do ya do? Add more sugar and get going!

Finished product. Nailed it.

They looked nothing like the picture, but everyone said they tasted great. Never forget the cardinal rule of baking: add more butter, more sugar, or both, and you win! Happy baking!

Keeping Up Appearances: Let's Just Not, Okay?

 Super cool news! My debut as an official Contributor to the new hip site Real Housekeeping is today!

Ethel says go check it out!

Real Housekeeping is "a collaborative, multi-contributor blog dedicated to helping real people find real home solutions"--and I'm really excited to be a part of it!  There is so much out there these days bombarding the average (and the Rockstar) to be, well, let's be honest, to look a certain way, with all of their ducks in a row, pies in the oven, and baseboards sparkling, that it's refreshing to find a community of people who take all those projects you tackle around the house and present them from the "real" perspective. This is the perspective of those who've been in the trenches and know that all the events and projects that you aren't pinning on Pinterest or posting on Facebook are where you live 85-90% of the time. No one is doing everything perfectly all of the time.

The problem is, that there isn't anything wrong with having a clean house, or trying out a fancy new recipe, or making your child a super cute costume for a special holiday. Where we get lost is when we think badly of ourselves or of another person because of it. Oftentimes the people who seem like they've "got it all together" are just a lot better at advertising. Your obstacles and responsibilities at this time in your life are unalike anyone else's. You have no obligation to meet a standard that is set for another person.  All that is required of you is to live well your current circumstances and relationships. 

So, my message today is for all of us out there trying to "keep up with the Jonses": let's just not. But if you have a house-hold project to tackle, a new recipe to try, or want to laugh when it all bites you in the butt, come on over to Real Housekeeping. We have cookies.

How to Make a Toy Library and STOP Picking up After Your Kids

This is the first in a new series I'm starting called 

The point of the series is to highlight neat tricks that make a parent's life easier, especially with toddlers. Here's my first confession: I can't make this stuff up. Most of my best parent hacks (like this one!) are learned, especially from my dear friend Ellie, but from lots of other lovely people as well. I'm not a proponent of the "it takes a village to raise a child" mantra (no, it takes a pair of solid, disciplined, and holy parents!), but it just might take a village to teach a mother. So...without further ado (too late!) Here's our first Hijack:

Note the Harold-style crayon markings on the dresser...

Now, we've all been there before (every. stinking. day). The kids have a conference early in the day on the ways to annoy you the most, and they decide that this is the core of their plan:

In our house, I've employed a few strategies before to try and tame the beast that is Toys Everywhere with a few strategies:
1. Have fewer toys

2. Keep them all in one location

3. Organize them by type

I pare down the toys and clothes pretty regularly around here, and I moved the toys all up to the boys' room (mostly) so that there wasn't always such a big mess in the main living areas.  I also have multiple plastic bins organized by type of toy (trains, Legos, cars, dinosaurs). Having less stuff is calming, I think and these strategies as a whole have eased things a bit, but what usually ends up happening is that ALL the toys are out of their special bins, on the floor of the bedroom, in time for a last-ditch cleaning effort right before bed.

Voila. 

The idea of the Toy Library is that you keep ALL of the toys in one area/closet, organized by item, and your kids check an item out, just like they would a book at the library! (Only difference being that there are no overdue fines piling up!). Each child is then responsible for cleaning up the toy/toy bin that he picks.

So yesterday, I endeavored to make my own Toy Library, and start reaping the benefits.

The ideal Toy Library is a closet or area that you can designate and set aside for this sole purpose, and one that your kids can't get into (for obvious reasons!). I chose to re-purpose a narrow hall closet next to the boys' room. A friend of mine has her's in a separate part of her basement area (their playroom is down there too). You could also just use a special bookcase or something somewhere, but it has to be a spot you can fit everything and keep the kids from getting into.

official Toy Library to-be

Step Two was actually to clean out the closet...I didn't take a before picture in time, so you are being spared the delight that it someone else's boring and messy closet in full bloom, but here's proof that I didn't already have a clean closet (so that you don't think I'm an Overachiever or something!):

old vacuum cleaner, never-worn clothes and a curious little boyo

After a lot of dust, some looking through old pictures (and sharing them to Facebook, of course!), and moving the clothing to a different (desperately in need of tidying) closet...we had this:

It's a Cupboard Under the Stairs ala Harry Potter, so I scoured my house for some type of shelf thing,
and came up with this crate that Steven got last week.
It's supposed to be for apples...but it's 16F out right now...I think I can hijack it for now!

So, prepped and ready, I started gathering toys and bins, mostly from the boys room (entrance to the left of the closet there), but also from downstairs and up in the TV room etc. The boys had toy stations all over the house! I thought about leaving their wooden train tracks in the bin in the TV room, but decided that I would rather not have to pick those up all the time too.

Here's what it looked like along the way. 

I was especially pleased that some of the trucks would hang on the pre-existing hooks!

And here's the finished product!

The top shelf has two (diaper) boxes of books (I left Where the Wild Things Are on the bedside table, because that's all the boys want to read at bedtime recently (kindred spirits and all that!). There is also a bin on the top shelf that is "baby" kind of toys that the boys will dump out, but we can keep separate for a while yet. The big red tote is their costumes (from Nana!), and the other bins are blocks, Legos, dinos, cars, trains etc.

So, how's it working?

I'm loving the amount of organization, and the fact that ALL the toys aren't out at once. I need to get a little hook and eye lock for the closet door, but for now the boys have been *pretty* good about not getting into the Toy Library without me. I also need to emphasize a time-minimum kind of rule, because they want to trade toys too quickly for my sanity. I think I'll have a timer for maybe 20 minutes or so that they can't trade in between picks. Overall: Five Gold Stars.

Bonus: I changed out Leo's bed into this neat toddler bed we bought a while back. He's been sleeping on a big futon (see above), so it's nice to have a little spot that's more for him. For the mattress I re-purposed a memory-foam mattress topper that we got from family by folding it into thirds. 

The juxtapositions in this room are wonderful, aren't they?
Also, only a picture of this corner,
b/c the rest of the room is a mess from my rearranging.
 #keepingitreal

So, there you have it, folks! Get hijacking!

Tattoos & Turtles

Just in case anyone was wondering how on top of all things crafty and seasonal this Momma is...I bought some Valentine cards for the boys to decorate. On Valentine's Day. We have been coloring paper and envelopes to wrap them up into, and we even mailed 3 out yesterday! Wow!

source (+me)

The Valentines we bought are fancy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ones with messages like:

so awesome I will threaten you with my swords!

no way you are touching this Valentine!

The Valentines come with little (not even 1" square) temporary tattoos with similar pictures (no words on the tattoos). Of course, most of the tattoos are being used for us, rather than being placed in the little "A TATTOO FOR YOU" slots on the cards...but that's the point, right?

Leo needs re-fresher tattoos every day, as soon as the old ones wear off, and (of course), if you give a mouse a cookie, Daniel is going to want one too.

They even got their Mom to get one!

I added the arrow so you can see the tattoo.
I had to put it on my arm (instead of the back of my hand, like the boyos) so it wouldn't show on nurse visits.
Somehow I think my patients might see Ninja Turtle body art as less than convincing of my medical abilities...;)

I would add a picture here of Leo & Daniel with their tats, but they refused to be captured by the paparazzi. Le sigh.

Meanwhile, Kelly @This A'int the Lyceum (that awesome mom who's running 5Ks to raise money to support charites for SMA) wrote a post the other day about gathering sponsorships in order to attend the Edel Gathering, a retreat for moms put together by the famous Jen of Conversion Diary and Hallie of Moxie Wife.

Anyways, in her post, Kelly flaunts a brand new "tattoo" she got of Hallie/Moxie wife, basically right on her chest. It was epic. I'd put the picture here, but my blog is rated G+. (kidding...really kidding!)

SO, I commented to Kelly that the tattoo was *the* best, and she wrote back to me that "for the right price" The Hopeful Starfish COULD CLAIM HER RIGHT BICEP!!! I dropped everything immediately to work on the design. Here's what I have so far:

just Peachy ;)

I just can't wait for all the fame and fortune to kick in...meanwhile... 

...it occurs to me that some folks may not know the story behind my blog's title...so, don't hold your breath, but I think I'll write something about it soon. 

Also coming soon:
1.Vampires and Vonnegut and 

2.How to Make a Toy Library & Stop Cleaning up After Your Kids

Baking for Real People: Oatmeal Ginger-Cream Pies

Preach it, sister.

{Baking by Picture}

So, I saw this recipe in my latest issue of Country Living magazine, in an article entitled "Heirloom Desserts" from contributors Josh Kilmer-Purcell  Brent Ridge, of  the 'Beekman 1802' brand.  It sounded so simple, and they even gave criteria for a recipe to become "heriloom": 

1. It must be delicous
2. It must be (relatively) simple to make.
3. It must have ingredients that are readily available to everyone. (source)

Delicious? The picture looked pretty good. Ingredients? Looks like I have everything...Simple? Turns out that was relative...

The picture. Hopeful end-result. Yeah. Right.

I should have realized I was in over my head when the first step of the recipe was to *toast* the oats. Riiiiight. Instead, I laughed and called my sister.  You've gotta share the fun when a recipe asks for more effort than you'd put forth to eat it...

Oats to toast. 

Then, *meanwhile*, I'm supposed to be stirring everything else together, BUT, I'm supposed to go back to the oven and shake the pan with the oats, or turn it around a few times, or something like that. You're lucky these oats aren't getting burned, buckos, there's no way I'm shaking them around, meanwhile stirring everything else. Nope. 

Meanwhile stirring

This next part of the recipe was the best, and illustrates why you should read the *whole* recipe before starting out. Or not. Do what you want. I usually do ;).  You'd think you could just "drop by rounded teaspoon-ful" in the old *every other cookie type recipe in the world* manner...but no:

...roll dough, two tablespoons at a time, into balls, or use a #30 (1-counce) ice cream scoop; for each sheet, drop 12 balls, 2 inches apart. With dampened hands, flatten each ball to a 1/2-inch thickness..

Umm...not gonna happen.  Didn't I mention that I was throwing these together in the 12 minutes I had left before having to wake the sleeping baby up and throw everything in the car to go to work?  With all due respect to those of you with 1-ounce ice cream scoops (I'm thinking of you, Mrs. M!)...

(source - w/ changes by yours truly)

So, I ended up winging it, as usual, and just made some blobs on the pans.

But look...she used parchment papers! Pro. For sure.

Now, on to the cream filling! Luckily, I had some candied ginger ("readily available ingredients" - ha!) in the cupboard from the last time I thought about trying a ridiculous recipe, but stopped at the smartest point: never starting.

Chop chop w/ the Cutco

And...stir it up!

This looks kind of gross. It's cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and the candied ginger bits.

I actually made the frosting later, after I came home from work.  I pulled the cookie parts out of the oven, and off I went.  I didn't really look at them, except to think "those don't really look the same, now do they?"  I came home to these:

Pretty dang flat.

But, life gives you flat cookies, and you're bringing dessert to the party...what do ya do? Add more sugar and get going!

Finished product. Nailed it. 

SO...they looked nothing like the picture....BUT, everyone said they tasted great. I suppose I forgot the cardinal rule of baking (of all cooking, really): add more butter, more sugar, or both, and you win! 

Happy Baking!

{Favorite Quick Takes}

Joining Hallie for Favorites and Jen for Quick Takes

(because that's how we roll in the world of slacker-bloggers!)

Basically just what's on my mind and what I like this week. With pictures.;)

1. The Radical Life
I keep on talking about this Radical Life guy:

Matthew Warner

I like his stuff. This week's post is more good stuff: 12 Most Important Metrics for Your Child's (and Your) Education.


2. Freeset Fundraiser
You probably heard about the UPS plane crash last week. We should definitely pray for the families of the two pilots who lost their lives in the crash. There is another way to help the victims of the event. Freeset is a fair-trade company that employs women who were trapped in the human trafficking industry in Calcutta. They pay their employees about 3x what they would otherwise make. They make organic cotton T-shirts and jute bags.

They make some pretty bags, y'all.

The UPS plane was carrying about $150,000 of their merchandise, representing 3 months of work by their employees. You can go here to donate to Freeset to help them cover their losses. In a truly lovely exchange of events, Freeset is also making a memorial T-shirt, the profits of which go 100% to the UPS pilot's families. (Thanks to Melanie @ the BigMama blog for sending me towards all of this).


3. Mom-couragement
I am always finding some good encouragements for moms. Here's a thought from a new source, Incourage. In a post entitled "10 Ways to be a Happier Mom" (who wouldn't click that?) by Ann Voskamp, I find:

 Love always begins with patience, and patience is a willingness to suffer.

How is that encouraging, you ask? --how could it be encouraging to suffer? Suffering isn't exactly what you think it is, then. Did you know that the root of our word, passion, is the Latin verb patior which means to suffer?! Think about it...what greater act of love is it than to give up your own selfishness (time, talent, wealth, wants etc.) for another?  Indeed..."Greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). When we sacrifice in the small things, when we make the extra efforts for our loved ones (and our un-loved ones!), we are growing in love. --and what could be better, or more important than that?

Source

4. Home Pre-schooling
SO, I'm not sending Leo off to a pre-school this fall.  I never really thought that I would be...he's only *almost* 3 after all...and I kind of like having him around...BUT I am going to be doing some more planned efforts at education (other than the constant stream of wisdom in didactic moments that comes out of my mouth ;) ).

This will perfectly describe me in the not-too-distant future...

What have I done to prepare so far? I made a Pinterest board (...but you should basically just look at Sarah's if you're in my boat...she rocks.) SO, I'm obviously Super Mom, and ready for anything. 

5. Veiled Truths...This week I read another post about veiling during Mass, this time from Jenna @ Call Her Happy. Basically, she's considering veiling during Mass, which was something women did *way back when* as a way to be respectful, and humble (and less distracting to themselves and others!). I was first intrigued by the idea by Jennifer @ Conversion Diary, a while ago. Kelly @ This A'int the Lyceum also wrote a good post about veiling, with some pictures of different non-veil veil options.  I think that where I stand on the idea is that I think it's kind of neat.  BUT I think this in a "I would wear a tasteful non-doily-on-my-head veil and everyone would love it" kind of way. 

Like this. Which you can find here. "Eternity scarf"

SO...pretty much defeats the purpose, which would be one of making my time at church more prayerful (HA! with two boyos...! yea...) etc. So, for now, I think I will remain unveiled...but there are these scarves...$5 only...BUT...then there's St. Paul, reminding us women to be adorned with "good deeds" and not with pearls and braids...SO, yes, for now...just me and my unruly (read: boyo-pulled) locks. 

6. Tie a Yellow Ribbon
You may have thought that all this was over, but we still have A LOT of soldiers out there in harm's way on our behalf. It may not seem to little old you and me like they are out there for us, when they go to places like Afghanistan to help those folks, but then I hear news from Egypt, and I compare it to news from here (which is horrible enough), and I know that our soldiers are out there for us. Case in point, my wonderful brother-in-law. Lt. JDB has just been deployed with his unit of the Army National Guard to Afghanistan, and he'll be gone for almost a year (with a stint in Mississippi first which sounds just as bad). So, as you go to sleep tonight in your safe and A/C'd home, remember all of our loved ones out there, and please pray for their safety. 

Two J's on Mag's #1 list today: and neither one missing her b-day for anything.

Which brings me to...

7. MARGARET's BDAY!! 
Younger siblings aren't allowed to get older (take note, Jono!!), but older ones DO...mwahahhaha. Anyways. Today is Mags bday. Or it was when I started finishing this post...anyways...AUGUST 24th is the best and so is she. You may remember her from her famous stints as guest-blogger here and here and here. Basically click the *snark* tag on the posts, and you'll get them all. Best older sister ever. Most of the time. Prettiest and smartest and most fun. Always.

Always got my back :)

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY lovey. xoxoxo

Balsamic Beef Roast...sort of!

Domestic Adventures of the Not-So-Rich-or-Famous
Another *Fabulous* Attempt at a Food Blog

(since Marie asked so nicely)

{joining Jen for day #2 of the blog challenge}

>>Balsamic Beef Roast<<

This is the official Pintrest picture
designed to make you think: YUM!

So, I decided to try to make something yummy tonight for dinner. AND I followed a recipe! Woo-ee! :0). Miss Sarah suggested this website the other day, a Pintrest gold-mine board of crock-pot/freezer meal ideas, wherein I found the above goodness and the following crock-pot recipe:

1 3-4 pound boneless roast beef 1 cup beef broth ½ cup balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon honey ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes 4 cloves garlic, chopped.
Into the crock pot for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.

I did the same recipe, with a few exceptions, per my usual kitchen m.o. I used venison loin and shoulder chops instead of beef...and no soy sauce, because who needs to add MORE SALT to a recipe with BEEF BROTH already for cryin' out loud (...also, I didn't have any left...which is inexplicable, since I normally feel the too-much-sodium vibe and leave out the soy).

Here is everything in the pot just after I put it there.
So that I could send a picture to my sister and claim domestic goddess-hood.

Crock-potting away!

yum yum yum and it smelled very good

Actual picture of my dinner plate.
As if I were one of those people who tweeted her dinners.

We added barbeque sauce, but that was all. Steve said, "it's good". Which is about an 8.5 out of 10 on the scale of dinners I make ;)

Happy Eating!